Speaker: Halldór Ásgrímsson

Venue: Milano

Date: Jun 23, 2009

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

First of all let me say how pleased I am to be here today. These cross-European dialogs and inspirational seminars are of great importance in our joined fight against climate change.

Allow me first of all briefly to inform you about the Nordic Council of Ministers work, activities and visions.

The Nordic Council of Ministers, formed in 1971 by the five Nordic states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and the three autonomous areas of Greenland, The Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands, is the forum for Nordic governmental co-operation.

Despite its name the Nordic Council of Ministers consists of several individual councils of ministers. Among others we have a council for environment, and a council for en-ergy.

Most of the Nordic ministers for specific policy areas meet a couple of times a year, in the framework of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The Chairmanship of the Council of Ministers, which is held for a period of one year, rotates between the five Nordic countries. Iceland is chairing the Council of Ministers this year. Next year Denmark will take over. Decisions made in the Council of Minis-ters are unanimous. The budget of the Nordic Council of minsters is proximally 120 million Euros a year.

We have offices in the three Baltic countries and two in Russia. We have almost 20 institutions working with different issues on a Nordic level e.g. research, innovation, health, education, and culture.

In addition to formal Nordic political co-operation, a wide array of networks have developed over the years, both at the local government level, between national institutions and among various types of NGOs, academics, professionals and citizens. We also have many inter-Nordic or bilateral cooperations.

The depth and the scope of the work carried out by the Nordic Council of Ministers are in my opinion in many ways unique. The five countries and three autonomous areas have been able to develop a successful and trustful cooperation over the years.

The Nordic parliamentarians also have their formalised cooperation called the Nordic Council. Once a year they form a physical council for a week, discussing topics and issues of shared interest, and giving recommendation to the different ministerial councils.

Two years ago the Nordic Prime Ministers initiated a process to create a more focused Nordic cooperation to better meet the challenges and opportunities presented by globalisation. In addressing these challenges the Nordic governments are prioritising climate, the environment, energy, and innovation.

So far 15 specific initiatives have been launched as a direct result of this globalisation initiative, and the fight against climate change has been a keystone in many of them.

But moreover, the Nordic region is one of the best performing regions in the world when it comes to renewable energy. The region produces 63% of its electricity from renewable sources; no other region in the world can match this!

Our competencies cover a wide range of renewable energy technology.
In February this year the Nordic prime ministers launched a new website to draw attention to these Nordic competencies; www.NordicEnergySolutions.org (Nordic Energy Solutions)

This web portal presents some of the best solutions developed in the Nordic countries, and we have much to offer.

Yes the region is fortunate in that it is both rainy and windy, which gives us a lot of wind and water resources. Deep forests, volcanic activity, and the sea surrounding the region gives us access to even more renewable sources.

Resources are one thing; another is the knowledge to harvest them.

The Nordic governments have put a lot of effort into creating incentives and structures to support an innovative, creative, and knowledge intensive environment, not just on the national level but also on the regional level. National and regional strategies and ambitions are also showcased on the website I mentioned before; Nordic Energy Solu-tions.

We are small open economies, and the fact that we can cooperate on research, on compatible legal framework to support mobility and innovation, and encourage a sus-tainable development; means that today the region is a frontrunner within clean en-ergy technologies.

The webportal is meant as an inspiration to decision makers, researchers, academia, business and others.

I do hope you’ll take the opportunity of visiting the web cafe in the coffee break, to see more about our web portal Nordic Energy Solutions.

Another of the 15 globalisation initiatives is to promote Nordic excellence in research.

In 2008 the Nordic governments initiated a research programme covering the follow-ing thematic sub-programmes:

• Effect studies and adaptation to climate change

• Interaction of climate change with ice, snow and glaciers

• Nanotechnology and energy efficiency

• Integration of large-scale wind power

• Sustainable bio energy

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS)

The Excellence in Research Programme has obtained total public funding in the amount of €65 million over a five-year period.

The public funding consists of funding in the form of funds from the Nordic Council of Ministers, the member countries and the Nordic institutions of Nordic Research Board (Nordforsk), the Nordic Innovation Centre and Nordic Energy Research.

Furthermore, efforts are being made to involve both the business sector and the EU in the programme funding.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Last year and again this year the Nordic Council of Ministers together with a leading Nordic think-tank “Mandag Morgen” is hosting a conference and business exhibition called Nordic Climate Solutions.

The Swedish Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt opened the event last year, which took place in Copenhagen.

Over the course of two days more than a thousand business leaders, decision makers, experts, and opinion makers from over 40 different countries together with Nordic and international key note speakers, debated emerging and existing solutions to the cli-mate crisis.

We are intending to repeat the success again this year in September, with as many lively debates and inspirational key note speakers as last year. Hopefully the Finnish and The Danish Prime Ministers will open the event this time.

My Hope is that the conclusions from the different sessions will serve as input to the decision makers of this world, who will meet later this year for the COP-15.

The heading for this session is “Institutions versus climate change”. We all have a responsibility of taking climate change seriously. This is fundamental in many of our activities this year and in the years to come.

Two weeks ago I participated in the Nordic Prime Ministers meeting in Iceland. Cli-mate change was one of the topics on the agenda. The Prime Ministers stated the im-portance of shifting to green economies. In this context energy efficiency, renewable energy, and a sustainable transportation sector are of utmost importance.

This year the Nordic region is in the global spotlight. Denmark is hosting the Cop-15 and Sweden is chairing the EU from the 1st of July. The Swedish Prime Minister re-cently stated, in a presentation of his visions for the Swedish presidency, the urgency of combating climate change and the importance of reaching an agreement in Copenhagen.

It gives the region a particular responsibility in shedding light on the different aspects of climate change, on cutting-edge research, and energy efficient solutions for a car-bon-free society. But the Nordic countries can not do this alone, so today we meet in Milan to discuss climate change and renewable energies.

Italy with the G8 presidency plays an important role, and Milan represents one of the most innovative places in Europe, which makes me very pleased to be here today and strengthen the bond between us.

I especially want to thank you Marco. You have done a tremendous job, and it has been a pleasure to work with you.

I wish us all luck with our debates and workshops today, and hope to gain new in-sights and new networks

Many say, how can we in the middle of a financial crisis, afford to be so concerned with climate change. I will argue the contrary. A green economy can be our way out of the crisis. The cost of inaction will in the long run be far higher than the cost of action.

Thank You for your attention